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<title>the mother we share will never keep our cold hearts from calling by nuclearmuffins</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23782408">the mother we share will never keep our cold hearts from calling</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/nuclearmuffins/pseuds/nuclearmuffins'>nuclearmuffins</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dragon Age II</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Babies, Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, In-Laws, Male-Female Friendship, Post-Canon, Sisters</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 21:15:54</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,735</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23782408</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/nuclearmuffins/pseuds/nuclearmuffins</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After her sister Marian gives birth, Maura Hawke assuages some of Fenris's fears about parenthood.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Anders/Female Hawke (mentioned), Fenris/Female Hawke (Mentioned)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>the mother we share will never keep our cold hearts from calling</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/paladin_piper/gifts">paladin_piper</a>.</li>


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/21852964">the fire is burning down to embers</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/paladin_piper/pseuds/paladin_piper">paladin_piper</a>.
        </li>

    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is for one of my dearest friends, paladin_piper as a gift/sequel-ish to the wonderful fic she wrote for me last December. It's a little fic for our Hawke sisters AU which I treasure and love more than anything. Go give her some love! Read her fics! She's a much better writer than I am!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“You’ve really taken to this ‘fatherhood’ thing wonderfully, you know,” Maura smiled, watching Fenris rock the tiny bundle in his arms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fenris startled in his seat, jostling the baby. Little Carver Jr. startled awake, first with a whimper, then a wail, seemingly louder than his little lungs should have allowed. Maura walked to his side, hushing the baby in practised, soothing tones. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hawke. You should have announced yourself,” Fenris grumbled, shifting the baby in his arms. Apart from this momentary disturbance, Junior had gone right back to sleep. At the sight, Maura couldn’t help but remembering Mal being that little, snuggled in Anders’ arms like that. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I could have blown a trumpet right next to your ear and you would have heard it as if I was in the Anderfels,” Maura giggled, settling in the chair next to him, reaching a finger over to tickle the baby’s face as he slept. “You’re completely and utterly enamoured, you know. I haven’t seen your face like this since Marian in her wedding dress.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fenris huffed, but Maura caught the slightest smile on her brother-in-law’s face, and she grinned back. She traced the wisps of hair on little Junior’s head, coming in black like Marian’s - and, if his eyebrows were any indication, like Fenris’s had been. It would be nice having a baby in the house again, she thought. Sure, it meant endless crying, long stretches of night without sleep, every surface somehow becoming </span>
  <em>
    <span>sticky</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and, if Junior was anything like his cousin, strange explosions, but there was also the unimaginable amounts of love mingled with fear and pride that burst in her chest with every milestone. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The house they’d built after the Chantry explosion was really becoming like a home now, just for them. There was her and Anders with Mal, Bethany safe from the Circles’ fighting with them, Carver dropping in whenever his Warden business would permit, and now Marian and Fenris had Junior. It might not have been what she’d envisioned, but she’d known it from the start that with Anders it would be messy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She had her family. And that was all she needed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’s smaller than Mal was, if I recall,” Fenris remarked to her, worry tinged in his words. “I confess I do not have much experience with children. Is that something to be concerned about?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maura shook her head. “Babies grow fast. Doesn’t matter what size they start at. I’ve seen Anders deliver babies born months too early who survived to be perfectly fine, and I’ve seen him with babies far too large to live past a few hours. Besides,” she added. “None of that matters unless he’s given the love he needs. And I think we’ve got that covered plenty,” she cooed, softly touching Junior’s button nose. He moved a little in Fenris’s arms but didn’t wake, instead, making a soft gurgle as he slept. She remembered Mal making a noise exactly like it when he was that small, and she couldn’t suppress her smile growing wider. It hadn’t taken long for the baby to worm his way into all of their hearts. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fenris set his jaw, looking uncomfortably away from her gaze. Maura raised an eyebrow, reaching to fuss slightly with Junior’s blanket. “I know the ‘Fenris has something on his mind but insists on brooding silently instead of actually talking about it like a normal person’ look when I see it,” she said. She wanted to elbow him in the side like she normally did, but she’d rather not wake the baby. “Surely you’ve learned at this point it’s useless to hide anything from me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Unfortunately,” he sighed. “You’re not going to let this go unless I talk, are you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It shocks and astounds me you even have to ask. How many years have you known me, Fenris?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fenris huffed, but leaned back and looked her in the eye. “I fear that… I do not know what it is like to have a father. I do not know what a father is supposed to do, no example to look towards for direction. My son doesn’t deserve a life like I lived.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maura frowned. “Fenris, just the very fact you’re so worried about this is a good sign. Junior’s only three days old and you’re fussing that much? You know, it’s rather sweet, coming from you.” She gave him a smile. “And no first-time parent knows what to do when they have a child. You don’t know how lost I was with Mal for the first few </span>
  <em>
    <span>months</span>
  </em>
  <span>, let alone days.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fenris frowned. “That’s not my point, Hawke. I have no example for what a family is supposed to be like. You and Marian had loving parents. You had your siblings. And even the mage-” Maura raised her other eyebrow, and Fenris scowled. “Fine. Even </span>
  <em>
    <span>Anders</span>
  </em>
  <span> had a family before he went to the Circle. You all know what it is like to have a family. Yet I remember nothing of my mother, and my only sister sold me out to my former master. I’ve no example for what I should do.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maura sucked in a breath before she gathered her thoughts. “I know you're worried about all of that. You don't know what your family was like, true. But the difference is, you have a family </span>
  <em>
    <span>now.</span>
  </em>
  <span> You’ve got Marian, you have me, the twins, Mal, Anders-” She saw Fenris’s mouth shift into a scowl at hearing Anders’ name. “Yes, yes, I know, you two can’t stand the sight of each other. But he loves Marian, and I know he’d do anything to protect Junior, just like I would. Because I’d leave him if he didn’t,” she added jokingly. Nothing could ever get her to leave Anders, but she knew he’d never do anything to put Junior in danger. At least, not intentionally. She knew all too well about the unintended consequences of Anders trying to do what he thought was best for those he loved.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You </span>
  <em>
    <span>do</span>
  </em>
  <span> know what it’s like to have a family," Maura hugged his arm, and surprisingly enough, Fenris didn't freeze up at her touch. "You have us.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fenris averted away from her gaze, deep in thought. “You cannot possibly have come here just for conversation.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She rolled her eyes. “Dodging the subject are we, good ser? Fine,” she smiled, standing up. “I was coming to take Junior inside. It’s getting chilly out here, and you-” she pointed at him, still in his regular clothes with most of his skin and markings exposed, “are not exactly warmly dressed enough.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fenris hugged the baby bundle closer to his chest. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maura rolled her eyes. “I’m not kidnapping him away for good, Fenris. It’s just so we can get him to sleep in a proper bassinet. You know, the one we spent a lot of time and effort making? </span>
  <em>
    <span>By hand?</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fine,” Fenris said. “You’re the only mage I’d trust enough, Hawke.”</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>“You know,” Maura turned to Marian as she settled Junior in his bassinet, “I wasn’t really sure what you were thinking eight years ago when you turned to me right after Fenris ripped a man’s heart out of his chest and said, ‘Maker’s breath, I’m going to marry that man,’ but maybe you weren’t quite as crazy as I thought.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How’s that?” Her sister raised an eyebrow, reaching over to peek at her baby. Maura remembered when she’d do the same to Mal - she couldn’t stop looking at him for a second, lest she miss a single gurgle or a tiny smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your terrifying fugitive vigilante husband has turned into quite the protective dad,” she sat down next to her sister, still in bedrest. Anders had ordered a full week’s rest after Carver Junior’s difficult birth, and although Marian wasn’t quite happy with it, she’d grudgingly complied and stayed in bed. “I nearly had to pry Junior away from him with a crowbar.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Marian leaned back in her nest of pillows. “You could have at least kicked him inside, too. I’ve been wanting some company here in my sickbed.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nah. He decided he wanted to stay out and brood some more- </span>
  <em>
    <span>hey!”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Maura yelped when Marian pinched her in the side, then laughed. “Oh, not fair. You only did that because you </span>
  <em>
    <span>know</span>
  </em>
  <span> I can’t retaliate.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You wouldn’t. You love me too much,” Marian grinned devilishly, and Maura stuck out her tongue at her like they were children again. Marian shifted over to the side so Maura could climb onto the bed properly beside her, and she settled in beside her sister. Marian was certainly comfortable, she thought, in a bed stuffed high with pillows and covered in quilts, topped with a halla-wool blanket that had taken her weeks to crochet as a wedding gift for her sister and Fenris (Merrill had helped supply the wool.) But her sister was a warrior, itchy without action, and getting antsy with the constant bedrest. When this was done, Maura thought, she’d take her sister and Fenris somewhere nice - maybe a slaver hideout so they could do as much hack-and-slashing as they wanted. But for now, she let her sister lean into her, tucking her sister's dark-haired head under her chin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She thought of how they used to do this as children - her, Marian, and Garrick hiding in their parents’ bed when a thunderstorm struck, cuddled on top of each other, huddled into whatever crevice they could find. Now, Mother and Father were both gone, and Garrick was too - but they still had each other. Now they were the parents.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They sat like that in silence for a while, listening to only the sound of Junior’s soft breathing. Finally, Marian spoke. “Did you ever think that after the explosion, we could find peace like this? With our family? With our </span>
  <em>
    <span>children?</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I-” Maura started, but somewhere above them, she heard a small </span>
  <em>
    <span>boom</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and then a clatter. Maura sighed, waiting to be called any second now. And sure enough, she heard Mal's voice trill up seconds later in a loud </span>
  <em>
    <span>"Mama!"</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Maura kissed her sister on the forehead. “Parental emergency,” she sighed. “Just you wait until Junior is old enough to cause explosions of his own.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll be counting down the days,” Marian smiled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Just as Maura left, she saw Marian move over to Junior’s bassinet, tickling his chin. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Maybe this isn’t quite the peace that I imagined, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she would have said to Marian,</span>
  <em>
    <span> but… it’s ours.</span>
  </em>
</p>
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